VISION: CULTURAL SHIFTS

VISION: CULTURAL SHIFTS

Forget 1st and 3rd world differences. The old habit of dividing 1st and 3rd worlds is not a meaningful way of viewing the world any more. First and third are so intertwined that the distinction is not relevant.

Meantime a few major demographic shifts are occurring whose profound effects will be felt at least in the US for decades. These will color the nature of the next generation workforce and business culture, and will herald a whole new set of cultures that have not been part of the American politician and economic landscape. As a result, in the next 5 years watch for at least one of the following three things to occur; a Latino Governor in one of the three big states Texas, Florida or California, an Asian American Ambassador to EU, and/or a first generation Asian in the Presidential cabinet.

Let’s look at 3 key interrelated trends that will shake up the cultural in the business world. Even with predictions of a depression in 2008, unemployment is still under 4% in parts of California and Massachusetts in the high tech industries. In fields like bio-tech companies can not find enough technically trained staff and so many of them are stealing from each other to stay competitive. Second, a large number of the highly skilled workers needed by the high tech based New Economy are not in the US, they are in India, and to a lesser extent in China and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria & Hungary) and will have to be imported. Third, a majority of this crop of high tech cross-cultural immigrant workers has a few characteristics that run across national borders; they are extremely well educated, independent, very motivated, politically jaded, raised and nurtured on western pop culture, entrepreneurial to the core, techno-savvy, and passionate 20 somethings. Nomads. What will it take to get them to make US their home base even for a short while ?

The Rand Corporation predicts that one third of this country’s population will claim Asian or Hispanic roots by 2050 (Economist): The plain facts are that in less than 20 years in many of the richer suburbs in this country you will hear a lot more Russian, Gujarati, Spanish and Mandarin than you will English. Additionally, thanks to their larger numbers in the medical, scientific research fields, and their increasing dominance in the area of computer programming, South Asians are the ethnic group with the highest per capita income in the US,.

If you want to stay culturally relevant find out what is inside a dosa and how it differs from Konji.